In causal attribution, tendency for observer to overestimate effects of dispositional factors when making attribution about actor's behavior but to overestimate effects of situational factors when making self-attributions.

Attitude Inoculations

Method of reducing effectiveness of persuasive message based on medical model; involves giving recipient of message arguments against own position and weak counterargument (refutations against those arguments). Inoculation found particularly effective for reducing persuade-ability.

Attribution (Dimensions)

Causal attributions often described in terms of 3 dimensions: internal/external (dispositional/situational); stable/unstable; and specific/global.

Autokinetic Effect

Sherif used the autokinetic effect (appearance that a stationary point of light is moving) to study conformity to group norms.

Bases of Social Power

Methods used to induce compliance in another person. French and Raven identified 6 bases of social power: coercive, reward, expert, legitimate, referent, and informational.

Bystander Apathy

Tendency of people to not intervene in emergency situations when others are present. Bystander apathy attributed to 3 factors: social comparison, evaluation of apprehension, and diffuse or responsibility.

Cathersis Hypothesis

Predicts that act of aggression reduces indv.'s arousal level which then decreases likelihood of acting aggressively again in near future. Research not supportive of this claim.

Central Traits

Characteristics that have greater impact than others on impression formation.

Characteristics of Communication

Several characteristics of communicator affect its persuasiveness- e.g., level of discrepancy btwn two positions of the recipient and the message, the order in which two sides of argument presented (primacy/recency effects), and whether the message is intentionally delivered or is overheard.

Characteristics of Communicator

research on attitude change confirmed that credible communicators more persuasive. One factor that contributes to credibility is trustworthiness.

Proposes that prejudice may be reduced through contact btwn members of majority and minority groups as long as following conditions are met: members of different groups have equal status and power and provided w/opportunities that disconfirm their negative stereotypes about members of other groups.

Deindividuation Model

State of relative anonymity that allows indv to feel unidentifiable. Deindividuation associated w/increases in antisocial behaviors, b/c deindividuated person's behavior no longer controlled by guilt, fear of evaluation, or other inhibitory factors.

Effects of Crowding

Crowded conditions tend to enhance positive experiences and increase unpleasantness of negative experiences. Males seem to be more stressed by crowded conditions and more likely to react w/increased aggression; apparently b/c males require more personal space.

Effects of Media Violence

Controversy about effects of media violence fueled by research on observational (social) learning. Although evidence to support each side - violence either increases or decreases violence - found in literature, in general, media violence does not seem to have a cathartic effect, but instead, increases viewer aggressiveness.

Effects of Porno

Research assessing exposure to violent porno generally found that it not only increases aggressive behavior but also promotes greater acceptance of violence against women.

A model of emotion in relationships that proposes there is an innate mechanism that generates emotion in response to unexpected events that disrupts ongoing sequences of behaviors.

Equity Theory

Theory of motivation that predicts that motivation (e.g., motivation to remain in a relationship) affected b comparison of input/output ratios.

Field Theory

Lewin's theory of human behavior that describes it as a product of interdependent factors in the person and his/her physical or social environment.

Fundamental Attribution Bias

Attribution error in which observer tends to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when making attributions about an actor's behavior.

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Theory that aggression is always motivated by frustration. Revised version predicts that frustration leads to aggression in the presence of aggressive cues.

Gain-Loss Effect

Predicts that liking related to pattern rather than amt. of rewards - specifically, people tend to be attracted most to indv who show increasing liking for them and to be least attracted to indv who show decreasing liking for them.

Gender Differences in Affiliation

Research shows females spend more time engaged in conversation, are more likely to talk to people of same sex, and may affiliate more than males do in public places.

Heterosexism & Sexual Prejudice

Herek defines HETEROSEXISM as "an ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes among nonheterosexual forms of behavior, identity, relationships, or community;" and SEXUAL PREJUDICE as "negative attitudes based on sexual orientation, whether target is homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual."

Illusory Correlation

Refers to tendency to see relationship btwn variables not actually related.

Jigsaw Method

Method of learning in which assignments must be completed by teams w/each team member being assigned a different piece of the project; also improves academic achievement, especially for members of minority groups.

Learned Helplessness

Learned expectation that one cannot control negative life events, which leads to apathy and depression; associated w/internal, stable and global attributions.

Minority Influence

Research shows that minority can influence majority by maintaining consistent (but not dogmatic) position.

Misery Loves Miserable Company

Schacyer's conclusion that people like to affiliate w/those in similar circumstances (i.e., miserable people tend to prefer to affiliate with other miserable people).

Controversial research that evaluated participants;\\' willingness to obey high-status indv even when doing so seemed to harm another person.

Overjustification Hypthesis

Notion that, when people are externally rewarded for a task they previously found intrinsically interesting, their intrinsic interest in task decreases.

Prison Study (Zimbardo)

Prison simulation study which demonstrated that people alter their behaviors to fit their assigned roles.

Pseudopatient Study (Rosenhan)

Research demostrated that roles of social context and labeling on impression formation. Once admitted to mental hospital, pseudopatients were viewed, esp. by staff, as mental pts even though they no longer exhibited any abnormal behaviors.

Psychological Reactance

Tendency to resist being influenced or manipulated by others, usually done by doing the opposite of what is desired or expected.

Robber's Cave Studies (Sherif)

Research at boy's camp that demonstrated that the most effective way to reduce intergroup hostilities is having members of the groups cooperate to achieve a mutual goal.

Schachter & Singer's Epinephrine Studies

Research on perception of emotion that showed that there are physiological differences btwn emotions and that perceptions of emotion depends on combination of physiological arousal and cognitive label for that arousal.

Schemata (Schemas)

Cognitive structures that organize past info and experience and provide framework for processing and understanding new info and experience.

Self-Monitoring

S\\Refers to need for and ability to manage impression that others form of us. High self-monitors most concerned w/"public self" and thus strive to match attitudes and behaviors to situation; Low elf=monitors guided by own beliefs and values and attempt to alter situations to match "private self."

Self-Perception Theory

individuals make attributions about their own attitudes and behaviors on basis of observation of their behaviors and other external cues.

Self-serving Bias

In causal attributions, tendency to attribute one's successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.

individuals use other (usually similar) people as sources of comparison to eval own attitudes and behaviors.

Social Exchange Theory

interpersonal relationships that focuses on magnitude of costs and rewards.

Social learning Theory

Type of learning that occurs simply as the result of observing the behavior of a model; used to explain the acquisition of aggressive behaviors.

Social judgment Theory

Theory of attitude change that predicts that we have 3 "categories of judgment" by which we eval. persuasive messages - latitude of acceptance, latitude of non-commitment, and latitude of rejection - and that we most likely persuaded when message is within latitude of acceptance.

Superordinate Goals

Goals that can be achieved only when indv or members of diff. group work together cooperatively; found useful for reducing intergroup conflict.

Symbolic (Modern) Racism

Theory about current, less blatant forms of racism that reflect combination of anti-African-American attitudes, strong support for traditional American values, (work ethic) and belief that African Americans violate those values.

Theory of Planned Behavior

Predicts that attitudes are accurate predictors when attitude measure assesses all 3 components of behavioral intention - person's attitude toward engaging in the behavior, what person believes other people think should be done, and person's perceived behavioral control.

Threat of Retaliation

Often reduces aggressiveness, esp. when it comes from person w/high status or power.